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Bin Laden Reported to Vow to Stay Free

CAIRO, Monday, Feb. 20 - Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured and declared that the United States had resorted to the same "repressive" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by Mr. bin Laden posted Monday on a militant Web site.

While there was no immediate way to authenticate the tape, it appeared to be a more complete version of one first broadcast Jan. 19 on Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel. In that broadcast, the first from Mr. bin Laden in more than a year, he offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his Al Qaeda network was planning more attacks on the United States.

"I have sworn to only live free," the speaker said. "Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived."

In comparing the behavior of Mr. Hussein to that of the American military in Iraq, the speaker said: "The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."

With the implied criticism of Mr. Hussein, the speaker appeared to be denying assertions by the Bush administration that Mr. Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda -- ties that were given as one rationale for invading Iraq.